[posted 6/28/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
“No-Longer Invincible Fedor Latest Victim of Mixed Martial Arts Randomness”
by Irvin Muchnick‚ Beyond Chron
http://www.beyondchron.org/articles/No_Longer_Invincible_Fedor_Latest_Victim_of_Mixed_Martial_Arts_Randomness_826
Friday, July 9, 2010
Background on Martha Hart’s Suit Against Linda McMahon and WWE
[posted 6/27/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Linda McMahon, the well-heeled Senate candidate, and Martha Hart, the resourcefully litigious widow of a performer in Vince and Linda McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment, had a tit-for-tat Sunday. On Face the State on WFSB-TV, Linda tried to debunk the lawsuit over the exploitation of the late Owen Hart’s likeness in a new DVD. In a statement issued by her Hill & Knowlton public relations agency, Martha fired back.
I encourage those of you following this dispute to get the full and unspun story. One of the best resources for this is the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Publisher Dave Meltzer gave me permission to reproduce this extended quote from his current issue:
The much-publicized lawsuit filed on 6/22 by Martha Hart against World Wrestling Entertainment, Vince and Linda McMahon, is really a combination of two things.
The first is an attempt to get WWE to no longer use any footage of Owen Hart, whether it be on television or future DVD releases, and have no links between him with the company. The move would make it impossible to induct him into the Hall of Fame as Martha Hart is claiming that the charity in his name, the Owen Hart Foundation, which started with the money Martha Hart received in her wrongful death lawsuit, feels any association of the name Owen Hart with WWE is a negative they don’t wish. I’m not sure what grounds they would have to keep the WWE from airing the footage, but clearly that is the goal of the suit. No performer in history has attempted or been able to get their footage eliminated from WWE archival DVDs and television offerings. The only examples of things changing are a lot of musical edits due to questions on rights, some changing of ring announcer voices due to a legal issue, eliminations of as much as humanly possible related to Chris Benoit–a company directive based on the taste issue, and as much as possible, eliminating the voice track of Jesse Ventura because he won a lawsuit that granted him higher than usual royalty payment on anything his voice appears on.
The other aspect of the lawsuit is she is asking for royalties based on a number of DVDs that Owen’s matches have appeared in, some of which he is on the cover, that the estate she claimed never received. She claimed it was the marketing of the new Hart Family DVD, with Owen on the cover, and heavily featured, that she was not told of in advance, which prompted her actions. What makes this strange is there would be no need to file such a lawsuit, because WWE pays royalties to people, including those no longer with the company, those who have sued the company, and those with acrimonious relationships with the company. I can’t imagine simply contacting the company, getting an accounting of DVDs that Owen Hart appeared in, that they wouldn’t get such a royalty check.
Then again, one has to question why, if her claims are true, she hasn’t gotten such a check for 11 years. Her whereabouts were not unknown. Owen Hart was far from a minor figure in wrestling history. She is a very public figure in Calgary. If it is an administrative oversight, it was a beyond sloppy one to involve someone who has a history of winning legal action against the company, an intense hatred of the company for very plausible reasons and has the money and perseverance to fight. Regardless of the merits of the first part of the lawsuit, it boggles my mind that somebody’s heads shouldn’t roll if there is truth to the second part of the allegation.
*****
Meanwhile, the larger backstory of the last week of the Linda McMahon campaign has been her reenergized media buys around the theme that while her business was fake, her grasp of public policy, as manifested by that experience, is real.
With what amounts to a revealing immaturity at this stage of the electoral proceedings, bloggers at both The Washington Post and TV Guide used the latest McMahon commercial an an excuse to yuk it up again.
This particular piece of McMahon family prestidigitation is an extension of a tale now in its fourth decade of retelling. Tomorrow I’ll go over it one more time and try to explain it so that everyone can understand — including those continuing to cling to the illusion that either wrestling or politics has a direct relationship to reality.
Journalists covering the boulevard-wide intersection of Connecticut Campaign 2010 and American kitsch need to understand that the McMahons let wrestling fans in on the joke a long time ago; that they had a specific interest in doing so; and that the crutch of this cliche makes people who take themselves seriously look dumber, not smarter.
Irv Muchnick
Linda McMahon, the well-heeled Senate candidate, and Martha Hart, the resourcefully litigious widow of a performer in Vince and Linda McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment, had a tit-for-tat Sunday. On Face the State on WFSB-TV, Linda tried to debunk the lawsuit over the exploitation of the late Owen Hart’s likeness in a new DVD. In a statement issued by her Hill & Knowlton public relations agency, Martha fired back.
I encourage those of you following this dispute to get the full and unspun story. One of the best resources for this is the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Publisher Dave Meltzer gave me permission to reproduce this extended quote from his current issue:
The much-publicized lawsuit filed on 6/22 by Martha Hart against World Wrestling Entertainment, Vince and Linda McMahon, is really a combination of two things.
The first is an attempt to get WWE to no longer use any footage of Owen Hart, whether it be on television or future DVD releases, and have no links between him with the company. The move would make it impossible to induct him into the Hall of Fame as Martha Hart is claiming that the charity in his name, the Owen Hart Foundation, which started with the money Martha Hart received in her wrongful death lawsuit, feels any association of the name Owen Hart with WWE is a negative they don’t wish. I’m not sure what grounds they would have to keep the WWE from airing the footage, but clearly that is the goal of the suit. No performer in history has attempted or been able to get their footage eliminated from WWE archival DVDs and television offerings. The only examples of things changing are a lot of musical edits due to questions on rights, some changing of ring announcer voices due to a legal issue, eliminations of as much as humanly possible related to Chris Benoit–a company directive based on the taste issue, and as much as possible, eliminating the voice track of Jesse Ventura because he won a lawsuit that granted him higher than usual royalty payment on anything his voice appears on.
The other aspect of the lawsuit is she is asking for royalties based on a number of DVDs that Owen’s matches have appeared in, some of which he is on the cover, that the estate she claimed never received. She claimed it was the marketing of the new Hart Family DVD, with Owen on the cover, and heavily featured, that she was not told of in advance, which prompted her actions. What makes this strange is there would be no need to file such a lawsuit, because WWE pays royalties to people, including those no longer with the company, those who have sued the company, and those with acrimonious relationships with the company. I can’t imagine simply contacting the company, getting an accounting of DVDs that Owen Hart appeared in, that they wouldn’t get such a royalty check.
Then again, one has to question why, if her claims are true, she hasn’t gotten such a check for 11 years. Her whereabouts were not unknown. Owen Hart was far from a minor figure in wrestling history. She is a very public figure in Calgary. If it is an administrative oversight, it was a beyond sloppy one to involve someone who has a history of winning legal action against the company, an intense hatred of the company for very plausible reasons and has the money and perseverance to fight. Regardless of the merits of the first part of the lawsuit, it boggles my mind that somebody’s heads shouldn’t roll if there is truth to the second part of the allegation.
*****
Meanwhile, the larger backstory of the last week of the Linda McMahon campaign has been her reenergized media buys around the theme that while her business was fake, her grasp of public policy, as manifested by that experience, is real.
With what amounts to a revealing immaturity at this stage of the electoral proceedings, bloggers at both The Washington Post and TV Guide used the latest McMahon commercial an an excuse to yuk it up again.
This particular piece of McMahon family prestidigitation is an extension of a tale now in its fourth decade of retelling. Tomorrow I’ll go over it one more time and try to explain it so that everyone can understand — including those continuing to cling to the illusion that either wrestling or politics has a direct relationship to reality.
Journalists covering the boulevard-wide intersection of Connecticut Campaign 2010 and American kitsch need to understand that the McMahons let wrestling fans in on the joke a long time ago; that they had a specific interest in doing so; and that the crutch of this cliche makes people who take themselves seriously look dumber, not smarter.
Irv Muchnick
My Coverage of Fedor Emelianenko’s Shocking Loss
[posted 6/27/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Fedor’s mystique snuffed in 69 seconds
By IRVIN MUCHNICK FOR QMI Agency and SLAM! Sports
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Fighting/MixedMartialArts/2010/06/27/14534041.html
Fedor’s mystique snuffed in 69 seconds
By IRVIN MUCHNICK FOR QMI Agency and SLAM! Sports
http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Fighting/MixedMartialArts/2010/06/27/14534041.html
‘Voters Must Weigh McMahon Business Experience’
[posted 6/25/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Letter to the editor in the New Haven Register by Frank DePino of Hamden:
http://nhregister.com/articles/2010/06/24/opinion/doc4c22d3f70b9bd789466005.txt
Letter to the editor in the New Haven Register by Frank DePino of Hamden:
http://nhregister.com/articles/2010/06/24/opinion/doc4c22d3f70b9bd789466005.txt
People Died on Linda McMahon’s Watch, And That Ain’t No Soap Opera
[posted 6/24/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Slick as owl shit, like the Linda McMahon campaign always is, Connecticut’s would-be Republican senator has rolled out a new TV commercial in which she turns the fake-vs-real question inside-out. Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo blog has a decent analysis, including a comparison of McMahon’s ad with the way another showbiz figure, comedian Al Franken, navigated a somewhat similar challenge during his successful run for the Senate seat in Minnesota. See “McMahon Downplays Her Pro-Wrestling Past: It’s A ‘Soap Opera’ That ‘Isn’t Real,’” http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/mcmahon-downplays-her-pro-wrestling-past-its-a-soap-opera-that-isnt-real-video.php?ref=fpb.
There’s a key difference, though, and it has nothing to do with whether Monday Night Raw is more high-, medium-, or low-brow than Saturday Night Live.
At Linda McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment, people die needlessly. Not soap-opera characters. People. And that isn’t funny.
Irv Muchnick
Slick as owl shit, like the Linda McMahon campaign always is, Connecticut’s would-be Republican senator has rolled out a new TV commercial in which she turns the fake-vs-real question inside-out. Josh Marshall’s Talking Points Memo blog has a decent analysis, including a comparison of McMahon’s ad with the way another showbiz figure, comedian Al Franken, navigated a somewhat similar challenge during his successful run for the Senate seat in Minnesota. See “McMahon Downplays Her Pro-Wrestling Past: It’s A ‘Soap Opera’ That ‘Isn’t Real,’” http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/06/mcmahon-downplays-her-pro-wrestling-past-its-a-soap-opera-that-isnt-real-video.php?ref=fpb.
There’s a key difference, though, and it has nothing to do with whether Monday Night Raw is more high-, medium-, or low-brow than Saturday Night Live.
At Linda McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment, people die needlessly. Not soap-opera characters. People. And that isn’t funny.
Irv Muchnick
Don’t Exaggerate Ulterior Motive of Martha Hart’s WWE Lawsuit
[posted 6/23/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
Though Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green’s Connecticut Confidential blog has covered my work generously, I disagree with the thrust of his post today, “McMahon Suit Has ‘Nothing To Do With Campaign’ Hmmm....,” http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2010/06/mcmahon-lawsuit-has-nothing-to.html.
I think Brother Rick is too caught up in generic skepticism with respect to the timing of the lawsuit filed by the widow of wrestler Owen Hart against Senate candidate Linda McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment.
Commentators ill-serve voters who are trying to sort out all this stuff when they get themselves so deeply stuck in the game-within-the-game. Sure, Martha Hart could be deriving bonus pleasure out of sticking it to the McMahons while Linda is running for the Senate. And Mike Benoit, the father of Chris Benoit, flat-out stated in his recent guest column in the Courant that he wouldn’t mind if there were a particular consequence at the ballot box from his crusade to raise consciousness about brain injuries and the overall appalling health and safety standards at WWE.
That is not some kind of conflict of interest, however. It is confluence of interest.
If there’s evidence that Martha Hart, her attorneys, or their powerhouse public relations consultants, Hill & Knowlton, are receiving sub rosa financial or in-kind support from McMahon’s political opponents, then that deserves to be exposed, in spades. But Green’s post offers no such evidence – only a suspicion that there’s a connection between the litigation and the Senate campaign.
Under the circumstances, he should spare us his hard-boiled and, in this case, empty cynicism. Does Green expect Hart to go to battle against a billion-dollar corporation while armed only with a popgun? The fact of the matter is that WWE is releasing a for-profit Hart family DVD that includes footage of Owen. Martha was not obliged to jeopardize her legal case by inaction, simply because doing something would collide with Linda’s personal electoral agenda; and bully for Martha if the coincidence can be exploited to call more attention to the cluster of deaths on the former WWE chief executive’s watch.
To be clear, I am not tagging Rick Green as a Linda McMahon apologist. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has already used that Manichean straw man in refusing to address my specific criticisms of elements of his coverage of the Benoit murder-suicide, and it is a tiresome defense. My only enemy is shallow analysis.
The essence of Martha Hart’s grievance against Linda McMahon should not be dismissed because it is coincident with a Senate race. Rather, it should be intensified. It’s called accountability.
Irv Muchnick
Though Hartford Courant columnist Rick Green’s Connecticut Confidential blog has covered my work generously, I disagree with the thrust of his post today, “McMahon Suit Has ‘Nothing To Do With Campaign’ Hmmm....,” http://blogs.courant.com/rick_green/2010/06/mcmahon-lawsuit-has-nothing-to.html.
I think Brother Rick is too caught up in generic skepticism with respect to the timing of the lawsuit filed by the widow of wrestler Owen Hart against Senate candidate Linda McMahon’s World Wrestling Entertainment.
Commentators ill-serve voters who are trying to sort out all this stuff when they get themselves so deeply stuck in the game-within-the-game. Sure, Martha Hart could be deriving bonus pleasure out of sticking it to the McMahons while Linda is running for the Senate. And Mike Benoit, the father of Chris Benoit, flat-out stated in his recent guest column in the Courant that he wouldn’t mind if there were a particular consequence at the ballot box from his crusade to raise consciousness about brain injuries and the overall appalling health and safety standards at WWE.
That is not some kind of conflict of interest, however. It is confluence of interest.
If there’s evidence that Martha Hart, her attorneys, or their powerhouse public relations consultants, Hill & Knowlton, are receiving sub rosa financial or in-kind support from McMahon’s political opponents, then that deserves to be exposed, in spades. But Green’s post offers no such evidence – only a suspicion that there’s a connection between the litigation and the Senate campaign.
Under the circumstances, he should spare us his hard-boiled and, in this case, empty cynicism. Does Green expect Hart to go to battle against a billion-dollar corporation while armed only with a popgun? The fact of the matter is that WWE is releasing a for-profit Hart family DVD that includes footage of Owen. Martha was not obliged to jeopardize her legal case by inaction, simply because doing something would collide with Linda’s personal electoral agenda; and bully for Martha if the coincidence can be exploited to call more attention to the cluster of deaths on the former WWE chief executive’s watch.
To be clear, I am not tagging Rick Green as a Linda McMahon apologist. Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has already used that Manichean straw man in refusing to address my specific criticisms of elements of his coverage of the Benoit murder-suicide, and it is a tiresome defense. My only enemy is shallow analysis.
The essence of Martha Hart’s grievance against Linda McMahon should not be dismissed because it is coincident with a Senate race. Rather, it should be intensified. It’s called accountability.
Irv Muchnick
What Matters About Owen Hart’s Widow’s New Suit Against Linda McMahon and WWE
[posted 6/22/10 to http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com]
The latest intrusion of reality into Linda McMahon’s wrestling-scripted Senate candidacy in Connecticut is a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Hartford against Linda, her husband Vince, and their World Wrestling Entertainment for appropriating the likeness of the late WWE wrestler Owen Hart in a new DVD compilation.
A few comments.
A few comments.
* Nearly a decade ago Martha Hart, Owen’s widow, settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against WWE for $18 million. Owen Hart had plunged to his death from the arena rafters in Kansas City in 1999 when his harness failed during a stunt entrance. (WWE later collected around half the settlement sum from the harness manufacturer.) But this new piece of litigation is about intellectual property — and nothing gets in the McMahons’ kitchen quite like the notion that IP might be for thee, as well as me.
* Of course, campaign watchers might actually use the occasion to reflect on the death itself. Owen Hart not only was a source of ongoing intellectual property; he also was a a disposable independent contractor. See “’The Question – Senate Candidate Linda McMahon (Still) Can’t Answer It,” January 10, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/%E2%80%98the-question%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93-senate-candidate-linda-mcmahon-still-can%E2%80%99t-answer-it-complete-7-part-series-as-a-single-post/. See especially this passage in the standard WWE talent contract: “WRESTLER, on behalf of himself and his heirs, successors, assigns and personal representatives, hereby releases, waives and discharges PROMOTER from all liability to WRESTLER and covenants not to sue PROMOTER for any and all loss or damage on account of injury to any person or property or resulting in serious or permanent injury to WRESTLER or resulting in WRESTLER’s death, whether caused by the negligence of the PROMOTER, other wrestlers or otherwise.”What a wonderful model of political leadership and accountability.
* Owen Hart’s fatal accident occurred at the start of a pay-per-view show, which went on. Vince McMahon later explained, ludicrously, that he feared a riot by fans if the show were canceled. Eight years later, in June 2007, McMahon had no such fear as he gave the green light to a live TV tribute to Chris Benoit. With deadpan tears, McMahon shielded his own wrestlers and his audience from knowledge – which became public before the broadcast was over – that Benoit had garroted his wife, snapped their seven-year-old son’s neck, and hanged himself.
* In the So What Department, Martha Hart may or may not be pure as Ivory soap. The brilliant memoir by Owen’s brother Bret Hart describes this wrestling clan’s implosion and bickering over money and responsibility following the gruesome industrial death of patriarch Stu Hart’s youngest son. In the book, Bret aptly and honestly compares his family’s and his own behavior to that of panelists on the Jerry Springer Show. (My review of Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling can be viewed at http://muchnick.net/hitmanreview.pdf.)
* Unfortunately, Bret Hart, like almost all of them, needed to be back in Vince McMahon’s good graces more than Hart needed to tell the truth. When he returned to WWE for the honor of making Vince (and himself) more money – this time in a script of beating up his once and future boss at WrestleMania – the wrestling commentary site Cageside Seats called Hart “a conflicted sellout.” But even before that, Hart was a wrestling carny with a wrestling carny’s instincts. See, for example, his apologist’s stance in his appearance with me on CNN’s Nancy Grace after the murder-suicide of his close friend Benoit – the lead clip at my YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/WrestlingBabylon).
Irv Muchnick
The latest intrusion of reality into Linda McMahon’s wrestling-scripted Senate candidacy in Connecticut is a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Hartford against Linda, her husband Vince, and their World Wrestling Entertainment for appropriating the likeness of the late WWE wrestler Owen Hart in a new DVD compilation.
A few comments.
A few comments.
* Nearly a decade ago Martha Hart, Owen’s widow, settled a wrongful-death lawsuit against WWE for $18 million. Owen Hart had plunged to his death from the arena rafters in Kansas City in 1999 when his harness failed during a stunt entrance. (WWE later collected around half the settlement sum from the harness manufacturer.) But this new piece of litigation is about intellectual property — and nothing gets in the McMahons’ kitchen quite like the notion that IP might be for thee, as well as me.
* Of course, campaign watchers might actually use the occasion to reflect on the death itself. Owen Hart not only was a source of ongoing intellectual property; he also was a a disposable independent contractor. See “’The Question – Senate Candidate Linda McMahon (Still) Can’t Answer It,” January 10, http://wrestlingbabylon.wordpress.com/2010/01/10/%E2%80%98the-question%E2%80%99-%E2%80%93-senate-candidate-linda-mcmahon-still-can%E2%80%99t-answer-it-complete-7-part-series-as-a-single-post/. See especially this passage in the standard WWE talent contract: “WRESTLER, on behalf of himself and his heirs, successors, assigns and personal representatives, hereby releases, waives and discharges PROMOTER from all liability to WRESTLER and covenants not to sue PROMOTER for any and all loss or damage on account of injury to any person or property or resulting in serious or permanent injury to WRESTLER or resulting in WRESTLER’s death, whether caused by the negligence of the PROMOTER, other wrestlers or otherwise.”What a wonderful model of political leadership and accountability.
* Owen Hart’s fatal accident occurred at the start of a pay-per-view show, which went on. Vince McMahon later explained, ludicrously, that he feared a riot by fans if the show were canceled. Eight years later, in June 2007, McMahon had no such fear as he gave the green light to a live TV tribute to Chris Benoit. With deadpan tears, McMahon shielded his own wrestlers and his audience from knowledge – which became public before the broadcast was over – that Benoit had garroted his wife, snapped their seven-year-old son’s neck, and hanged himself.
* In the So What Department, Martha Hart may or may not be pure as Ivory soap. The brilliant memoir by Owen’s brother Bret Hart describes this wrestling clan’s implosion and bickering over money and responsibility following the gruesome industrial death of patriarch Stu Hart’s youngest son. In the book, Bret aptly and honestly compares his family’s and his own behavior to that of panelists on the Jerry Springer Show. (My review of Hitman: My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling can be viewed at http://muchnick.net/hitmanreview.pdf.)
* Unfortunately, Bret Hart, like almost all of them, needed to be back in Vince McMahon’s good graces more than Hart needed to tell the truth. When he returned to WWE for the honor of making Vince (and himself) more money – this time in a script of beating up his once and future boss at WrestleMania – the wrestling commentary site Cageside Seats called Hart “a conflicted sellout.” But even before that, Hart was a wrestling carny with a wrestling carny’s instincts. See, for example, his apologist’s stance in his appearance with me on CNN’s Nancy Grace after the murder-suicide of his close friend Benoit – the lead clip at my YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/WrestlingBabylon).
Irv Muchnick
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